This application is based on and claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-120618, filed on Apr. 21, 2000, the whole contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an editor for musical performance data for editing musical performance data of automatic performance and accompaniment of an electronic musical instrument or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the technical field of electronic musical instruments and computer music, it is known that musical performance data called style data including, for example, pitch data and timing data, is reproduced for automatic accompaniment. Such style data is constituted of a plurality of parts such as percussion instrument parts and other accompaniment parts. A user may write or edit, and reproduce user musical performance data.
Conventionally, the following functions have been provided for editing and reproducing such musical performance data.
(1) Music is partitioned into sections to edit the music by designating musical performance data in the unit of section. On a display window (editor window), blocks corresponding to sections of the performance data are displayed continuously coupled to each other. A function is provided for elongating or shortening the length of each block on the display window in order to change the length of each section, i.e., to move the partitioning position of the performance data.
(2) Another function is to reproduce musical performance data in order to confirm edited results. A reproduction start position is set with a start position change switch and a reproduction start switch is activated so that music can be reproduced, e.g., from the start thereof.
(3) Another function is to manually input start and end positions of music and reproduce a desired section of the music.
(4) Another function is to always recognize a present position corresponding to an input position of musical performance data on the time axis and selected by an operator, and to display the present position as a distance from the start of the music.
(5) Another function is to insert setting information in musical performance data at an arbitrary position, the setting information including a tone color (or timbre) number, a tempo number, a panning (PAN) value and the like. The music can be modified starting from the inserted position in accordance with the setting information.
(6) Another function is to display a block as one section on the display window if the length of the block is elongated or shortened and merged with an adjacent section.
The conventional functions are associated with the following problems.
(1) In changing the length of a section, if the corresponding block only is elongated or shortened, adjacent sections are separated or overlapped. Therefore, in order to move the partitioning position between adjacent sections, both the blocks corresponding to the adjacent sections should respectively be elongated and shortened. This operation is cumbersome.
(2) It is easy to move the reproduction start position to the start position of music by using the start position switch. However, if the reproduction start position is to be moved to the start of an intermediate section, it is necessary to manually set the position by using, for example, a fine backward switch. This operation is cumbersome.
(3) In reproducing a desired section, it is necessary to manually set the reproduction start and end positions to the start and end of the section. This operation is cumbersome.
(4) Since the present position is displayed only as the position from the start of music, it is difficult to understand whether the present position is at which position in what section.
(5) Although the setting information can be inserted into an arbitrary position, if setting is to be inserted in one section, it is necessary to insert it after the start position of the section is searched. This operation is cumbersome.
(6) After the length of a block on the display window is elongated or shortened to combine it with an adjacent block and if this block is to be separated into original blocks, it is necessary to separate this block by checking the details of musical tone events and timings of performance data. This operation is cumbersome, and in some cases, the original blocks cannot be recovered reliably.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a musical performance data editor capable of providing handy generating and editing musical performance data.
Performance data of music is divided into a plurality of sections to allow performance data to be edited in each section. Display elements each having a configuration corresponding to a length of each section of the performance data are displayed continuously coupled each other. When the configuration of a selected display element is changed, the length of a corresponding section of the performance data is changed and the configuration of a display element of a section of the performance data adjacent to the section whose length of the performance data was changed is changed correspondingly.
At the same time when the configuration such as a block of a display element corresponding to a selected section is changed, the configuration of the display element of an adjacent section is changed. The length of the section in the performance data is also changed. Accordingly, the section can be easily changed. The configuration of a display element can be changed by using a pointing device such as a mouse.
It is preferable that as the end of the selected display element is pointed and moved on the display window, the end and an end of a display element adjacent to the end of the selected display element are moved at the same time to change lengths of both the display elements. Since the configuration of the display element is changed, a change in the section can be easily confirmed so that it is easy to use the musical performance data editor.
As the end of the selected display element is pointed and moved on the display window, the end and an end of a display element adjacent to the end of the selected display element are moved at the same time to change lengths of both the display elements. If the selected and changed display element includes therein an adjacent display element totally, the included display element is deleted and the length of a next adjacent display element is also changed.
As the end of the displayed element is pointed and moved, the configurations of the display elements of both the corresponding section and the adjacent section are changed so that a change in the section can be easily confirmed and it is easy to use the musical performance data editor. Further, if the selected and changed section includes therein an adjacent section totally, the length of the next adjacent section can also be changed.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing apparatus capable of setting a present position of performance data of music on a time axis and capable of editing the performance data of the music in each section among a plurality of sections of the music, comprising: a memory capable of storing the performance data; a display unit capable of displaying each section of the music; an operator capable of designating each section of the music on the display unit; a present position change switch for changing the present position in the music; and a controller for, when the present position change switch is operated, setting the present position to a start of a whole of the music if the section has not been designated, or if a section has been designated, setting the present position to an end of the designated section.
As the present position change switch is operated, the present position is set to the end position of a whole of the music if the section has not been designated, or if a section has been designated, the present position is set to the end position of the designated section. The end position is either the start or end position of the whole of the music, or either the front or back end position of the section. The present position change switch may be a start position move switch for setting the present position to the start end or front end position or an end position move switch for setting the present position to the end or back end position. The present position can be recognized also as the reproduction start position during the reproduction process so that the reproduction operation from the front end of the section becomes easy.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing apparatus capable of editing performance data of music in each section among a plurality of sections of the music, comprising: a memory capable of storing the performance data; a display unit capable of displaying each section of the music; an operator capable of designating each section of the music on the display unit; a reproduction start switch; and a controller for, when the reproduction start switch is operated, reproducing the performance data to an end of the music if the section is not designated, or if a section is designated, reproducing the performance data of the designated section to a back end of the section.
After the performance data is reproduced to the end of the music, the reproduction data may be reproduced again starting from the start of the music.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing apparatus capable of setting a present position of performance data of music on a time axis and capable of editing the performance data of the music in each section among a plurality of sections of the music, comprising: a memory capable of storing the performance data; a display unit capable of displaying each section of the music; an operator capable of designating each section of the music on the display unit; an operator capable of designating the present position in the music on the display unit; and a controller capable of displaying information of the present position as information of a position in a section including the present position.
Since the present position can be displayed as the information of a position in the section including the present position, the present position can easily be confirmed.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing apparatus capable of editing performance data of music in each section among a plurality of sections of the music, comprising: a memory capable of storing the performance data; a display unit capable of displaying each section of the music; an operator capable of designating each section of the music on the display unit; an operator capable of inputting new setting information; and a controller for, when the setting information is input after the section is designated, recording the setting information at a position before a first tone event in the designated section.
By simply designating a section and inputting setting information, the setting information can be recorded at the front end position of the designated section or at the back end position of the preceding section. It is therefore easy to set the setting information for each section.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing apparatus capable of editing performance data of music in each section among a plurality of sections of the music, comprising: a memory capable of storing the performance data; a display unit capable of displaying each section of the music; an operator capable of designating each section of the music on the display unit; and a controller for displaying display elements each having a configuration corresponding to a length of each of the plurality of sections continuous in a time domain, on a display window, the display elements being sequentially coupled to each other on the display window and changing the configuration of a selected display element to change a length of a corresponding section of the performance data and display a partitioning position at a position corresponding to a partitioning position of the section before alteration of the length thereof.
As the configuration of the display element corresponding to the selected section is changed, the length of the adjacent section is also changed. Therefore, the section can be easily changed and since it is possible to easily confirm the partitioning position before alteration, the original state can be easily recovered.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing method capable of editing performance data of music in each section among a plurality of sections of the music, the method comprising the steps of: displaying display elements each having a configuration corresponding to a length of each of a plurality of sections continuous in a time domain, on a display window, the display elements being sequentially coupled to each other on the display window; and changing the configuration of a selected display element to change a length of a corresponding section of the performance data and change the configuration of a display element and a length of a section of the performance data adjacent to the section whose length of the performance data was changed, in accordance with a change amount of the selected display element.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical performance data editing program to be executed by a computer and being capable of editing performance data of music in each section among a plurality of sections of the music, the program comprising the procedures of: displaying display elements each having a configuration corresponding to a length of each of a plurality of sections continuous in a time domain, on a display window, the display elements being sequentially coupled to each other on the display window; and changing the configuration of a selected display element to change a length of a corresponding section of the performance data and change the configuration of a display element and a length of a section of the performance data adjacent to the section whose length of the performance data was changed, in accordance with a change amount of the selected display element.
As the length of the selected section is changed, the length of the adjacent section is also changed at the same time. It is therefore easy to change the section and to generate and edit performance data.
As the end of a display element is pointed and moved, the configurations of the display elements of both the selected section and the adjacent section can be changed. It is therefore easy to confirm a change of the section and use the musical performance data editor.
As the end of a display element is pointed and moved, the lengths of the selected section and the adjacent section are changed. It is therefore easy to confirm a change of the section and use the musical performance data editor. In addition, if the selected section includes therein an adjacent section totally, the length of the next adjacent section can be changed.
By activating the present position change switch, the present position can be set to either the end position of music or a desired position of a section. It is therefore easy to generate and edit performance data.
Information of the present position is displayed as the information of a position in the section including the present position. The present position can therefore be easily confirmed and it becomes easy to generate and edit performance data.
By simply designating a section and inputting setting information, the setting information can be recorded at the front end position of the designated section or at the back end position of the preceding section. It is therefore easy to set the setting information for each section and to generate and edit performance data.
The present setting information of a designated one of sections can be confirmed as it is.
Even if the length of a section is changed, the partitioning position before alteration of the length can be easily confirmed. Therefore, the previous state can be recovered with ease and it becomes easy to generate and edit performance data.